In a remarkable act of creation spurred on by the space race between America and the Soviet Union, science fiction television shows in the 1960s confidently came of age, emerging from campy low-budget offerings of space commandos amid cardboard sets and sparking rockets to more sophisticated fare.
The turbulent decade that saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King’s assassination, and the Vietnam War meant that home viewers were more open to escapism and entertainment that would whisk them away from the world's horrors.
